<p>My daughter is an incoming senior and is interested in a mid sized to large school and wants to study biology. She thinks she might be interested in vet. science, or nursing, or physical therapy but really doesn't know yet. She lives in the Midwest, has taken the ACT twice and has a composite score of 29 with a superscore of 31. She has an UW GPA of 3.9 and weighted GPA of 4.5. All core academic classes have been honors or AP. She will have 6 AP classes by the end of high school. She is in 2 varsity sports, in the school orchestra, and has outside of school involvement in a charity that is very important to her. We have only visited 4 schools so far and she has liked both the big state universities and midsized private urban universities. She did not like the small LAC in a small rural town.
I know that her stats are pretty good and think she has a good chance to get into a variety of colleges, but also am very aware of costs and am hoping to direct her to schools that might also give her money to help bring the cost down to a more manageable level. Any ideas of good options that she would qualify for some merit money (we probably wont qualify for much, if any financial aid, but truly cant afford to pay what the EFC is working out to be. She is happy to consider colleges that are geographically distant. Thanks for any input. </p>
<p>Try this:
<a href=“http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php”>http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php</a></p>
<p>There are separate lists for private universities and LACs. Refer to the table columns for “non-need-based aid”.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/16451378/#Comment_16451378”>Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;
<a href=“Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #50 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #50 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;
<p>Automatic full tuition/Full ride thread
<a href=“Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;
Schools known for good merit thread:
<a href=“Schools known for good merit aid - Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52133-schools-known-for-good-merit-aid.html</a>
Competitive full tuition/full ride thread
<a href=“Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;
<p>Try Tulane. They give a ton of merit money.</p>
<p>What is your D’s idea of mid-size? And do you need sizeable merit? A $20000 award, while generous, to a school that charges $45000 for tuition alone might not be enough for some families.</p>
<p>If she might be serious about nursing or PT, have her look at University of Evansville, although it might be too small for her. They have direct entry to the PT program and great merit awards.</p>
<p>Many/most schools give merit based on best sitting, not superscores.</p>
<p>Tulane would expect higher scores for merit.</p>
<p>How much can you pay?</p>
<p>If your family can contribute 15k, then your child needs a full tuition award so that the family contribution can pay for room, board, fees, books, etc.</p>
<p>she needs to take the ACT again…and take SAT</p>
<p>Montana State was very generous with my high stat son.
My friend’s daughter is a physics major there and even has her housing covered by merit scholarship. (She had multiple merit scholarships) They recently sent her to a women in physics conference in Arizona or New Mexico fully paid for.
She also received two offers to join ongoing research groups at her orientation session. -before she even started class.
Research is big there. That is why it made our list. </p>
<p>What state do you live in?</p>
<p>Take a look at the awards at Temple:
<a href=“http://admissions.temple.edu/sites/admissions/files/uploads/188_1213_scholarship_info_sheet_sl_2014FINAL.pdf”>http://admissions.temple.edu/sites/admissions/files/uploads/188_1213_scholarship_info_sheet_sl_2014FINAL.pdf</a></p>
<p>With an ACT composite of 29 she qualifies for a $14,000 Deans award. Tuition is $24,000/yr</p>
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<p>With an ACT composite of 29 she qualifies for a $14,000 Deans award. Tuition is $24,000/yr</p>
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<p>We need to know how much the OP can pay. The above would mean that the family would pay about 25k each year. </p>
<p>Case Western Reserve and Carnegie Mellon both gave me great aid. Could also shoot for Cooper Union, which is free</p>
<p>What is affordable? Are you looking to being the cost to your in state tuition, or lower?</p>
<p>She’s got great ECs and grades. Recommend aiming for a 30 (1 sitting) Ior higher to qualify for the better merit scholarships. The return on investment for the re-takes more than make up for the testing fees. Good luck!</p>
<p>@metrocard, Cooper Union is no longer free 
For incoming students it’s 1/2 tuition, around 21K. Also with just 3 schools (Art, Architecture, Engineering) it doesn’t offer any of the majors OP wants. </p>
<p>Agreeing with multiple points from other posters. We fit the description you gave of not qualifying for much aid, but not being able to afford our EFC. But, what that means to different families is not the same. For us, A $30,000 scholarship bringing the cost down to around $32,000 was no more an option than when the cost was $62,000. </p>
<p>If she brought her test scores up higher, she would qualify for more guaranteed merit at a wider range of schools. Has she taken the SAT? I have had kids whose SAT score was higher than theIr ACT score. The difference between the 2 might push her up the notch she needs for greater aid.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great advice. She lives in IL and is very reluctant to take the test again and as she has taken it twice already and received the exact same composite but with different sub scores, I am not sure the effort to increase a point is worth the stress. We can afford to help her with up to 30,000 (including living expenses) a year but the sticker price at most universities are much more than that. So while I am not looking for a full ride, I am very interested in getting some money to help keep any loans low.</p>
<p>As I stated to another Illinois resident, it’s going to be difficult to beat UI-UC for reputation for the price. Most OOS publics universities of that calibre will run you a good 50% more than that and the private schools will be double that. Getting a $30K merit award is not easy from schools that cost up in the $60K range. Financial aid, will be integrated with merit, so it’s tough getting the cost down to that level. Mom2physicsgeek put it very well.</p>
<p>If you can afford $30,000 a year, look at the SUNY campuses. The cost for OOS would be within your price range. UMinn is another option. Even the IL publics would be within financial reach. </p>
<p>""“She lives in IL and is very reluctant to take the test again and as she has taken it twice already and received the exact same composite but with different sub scores, I am not sure the effort to increase a point is worth the stress. We can afford to help her with up to 30,000 “””"</p>
<p>then she needs to take the SAT…and yes it is worth it, unless you are so affluent that you would never miss the 40k or more that you would pay additionally from getting a lower merit amount. </p>
<p>If her current act is the best that she can do, even after taking the sat, then alabama would give her half tuition. remaining costs would be under budget. about 12k for tuition, plus room, board, books, etc. My friend’s D is starting vet school this fall after attending bama.</p>